Legal

After many years of meager wage growth, attorneys, paralegals and other legal-service workers are starting to see big gains again. Year-over-year, wages for this group, including bonuses, were up a full 5% through the first three months of 2013.

While pay is improving, hiring is still stagnant. Many recent law school graduates have not been able to find jobs in their field, according to Bardaro. Instead, manyare working as financial consultants and as administrators at non-profits and other places where they can employ their organizational and legal skills.

Over the next few years, prospects for legal workers should improve compared with recent years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It projects a 10% increase in jobs for attorneys, about average for all workers.

Source: PayScale The PayScale Index tracks changes in what full-time employees earn over time based on quarterly compensation trends. This report is based on the year-over-year percentage change in compensation for the 12 months ending March 31, 2012.